Jun 29 Facebook Ads vs. Yelp Ads

If you own a small business, it can be hard to know where to put your marketing budget.

We used real client data to compare Yelp vs. Facebook ads over a 6-month period.

Have any questions? Let us know!

The very first step to figuring out WHERE to put your money is determining who your audience is and finding out where they hang out online.

We call that audience development and segmentation.

You know the moment. It has happened to every.single.business owner.

*BAM* The phone rings. It's Yelp. They want to sell you something.

So, should you do it?

OUR CLIENT:

North Scottsdale

Nail Salon

Also offers waxing, facials, etc.

Mid-high income clientele

Under $1000 in marketing ad spend a month!

YELP ADS

Yelp initially offered my client $600 in free ad-spend. The client then continued the ad spend for 6-months.

By utilizing ads, their page was transformed :-) into the enhanced page.

This included Yelp "analytics." I use parentheses here as the data is very, very limited...

FACEBOOK ADS

Facebook Ads used Facebook Business Manager and boosted, on-page posts at the same monthly budget, roughly $10 per day.

For Facebook Business Manager ads, we targeted based on location and gender. For some ads, like Mother's Day, we added additional segmentation that would result in targeting solely moms.

We also utilized 'Boosted Posts,' on Facebook, as we have seen really strong engagement with existing followers through on-page boosts.

The Results:

After 1 year of holistic Facebook and Email campaigns + 3 months of Yelp advertising , Yellow Door took primary responsibility for the client analytics and we set up a very basic goal completion in Google Analytics: BOOK ONLINE.

In those three months, there were almost EQUAL conversions from each platform. But, the visits from Facebook were much, much higher.

What does this tell us?

Yelp leads cost a lot more than Facebook leads, but they are more qualified and more ready to book.

Facebook is really great at driving site traffic. But, the visitors from Facebook may not be ready to book. (It is essential that your Facebook ad campaigns are transparent enough that people know where they will be landing. If not, you will get an insane bounce rate from Facebook ads and no conversions.)

Yelp users know exactly what they are looking for, and what they are trying to do. They are in the moment of need, and thus are ready to book.

Facebook is an excellent tool for Brand Awareness and ongoing engagement.

So, where should your marketing budget go?

It depends on your goals, your type of business and your buyers journey.

If you have a very long buyer's journey, and no brick and mortar location, Facebook is probably your best bet.

If you are an in-person, service based industry, Yelp will cost you more, but the leads will convert. There are also the leads that we cannot account for from Yelp, like those that would call straight from the Yelp page, rather than booking online.